He will be reunited his first IndyCar
source:
irl.racing-live.com
In 2000, PDM Racing gave Sam Hornish Jr. the
opportunity to compete in the IRL IndyCar® Series a year after the Defiance,
Ohio, native won Rookie of the Year honors in the Toyota Atlantic Championship.
Two series championships and an IndyCar Series-leading 12 victories later,
Hornish will soon be reunited with the No. 18 entry that he drove in his first
three IndyCar Series races. His father, Sam, purchased the car from PDM Racing
principal owner Paul Diatlovich, and IndyCar Series technical manager Kevin
Blanch is restoring it to driving condition.
"This race car is very special to me," said Hornish, who won one race in 2004 in
his first season driving the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Dallara/Toyota/Firestone.
"It's the car in which I passed my IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 rookie
tests and earned my first podium finish."
One of last of the series' first-generation G Force chassis, it will be
displayed in the headquarters of the family's trucking business.
"I just never imagined he'd make it to that level," said Sam Hornish, whose
Hornish Brothers Trucking Co. was the car's co-sponsor with Advantage Power
Coating. "I thought (buying and displaying the car) would be something neat to
do."
The project evolved into something more than building a show
car.